Report lodged against Thanendran, ROS

Malaysian Makkal Sakthi Party members want MACC to investigate its president and the ROS for fraud.

SHAH ALAM: Embattled Malaysian Makkal Sakthi Party (MMSP) members today lodged a report against party president RS Thanendran with the MACC here at Shah Alam, Selangor.

They were led by the party’s incumbent acting president A Vathamoorthy, R Kannan (secretary-general) and Youth wing chief N Ramu.

In their report, they alleged that Thanendran colluded with the Register of Societies (ROS), who they also named in the report, of fraudulently amending the party’s constitution.

Also present were former Hindraf ISA detainee VGanapathy Rao and PKR Puchong divison chief S Murali.

“MMSP was formed by 10 key Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) members to uplift the Indian community and strive to meet their aspirations,” said Kannan.

Just three months into the party’s official launch by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in mid-2009, MMSP was split into three rival camps.

One was led by Thanendran, and the other two by former deputy chief (and a claimant to the top post now) Vathamoorthy and Kannan respectively.

Kannan and Vathamoorthy collectively accused Thanendran of misleading members and also misusing party funds.

According to Kannan, Thanendran and his brother RS Ramesh, a former vice president, spent an estimated RM500,000 on the party’s official launch.

When the MMSP central committee urged Thanendran to reveal the accounts, the latter refused to disclose details of the expenditure.

“When the committee was about pass a vote of no confidence against Thanedran, it also found out that he had colluded with the ROS to amend the party constitution,” said Kannan.

He added that the new constitution amended between Dec 19, 2009 and Jan 4, 2010 gave the party president absolute power to sack and increase the central committee members.

Kannan also accused Thanendran of forging the former’s signature to support the ammendments to the constitution.

“We believe that ROS also played a major role in this matter when it approved the new constitution without referring it to member at the party’s AGM,” said Kannan.

‘Unexplained new-found wealth’

“The ROS also kept mum and did not intervene to resolve the matter,” he added.

Kannan who claimed to represent 12,000 party members said that MACC should move to take action against Thanendran (photo) and the ROS.

Meanwhile, Youth chief Ramu also lodged a separate report against Thanendran over the latter’s alleged ‘new-found’ wealth.

“How did Thanendran, a former Hindraf national coordinator, who was once an odd-job worker become a multi-millionaire within a short period of time?” he asked.

During the Thaipusam festival in Sungai Petani, Kedah earlier this year, thousands of leaflets with details of Thanendran’s alleged wealth surfaced.

His detractors are also claiming that the federal government had awarded hefty contracts to Thanendran for throwing his support behind Barisan Nasional and Najib.

“We want MACC to investigate Thanendran immediately and allow him the chance clear his name,” Ramu told FMT.

Thanendran could not be reached for comments.